Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Imaginations and Dinosaurs

Have you ever had one moment that changed the whole mood of your day? Something that made you smile, not only with your mouth, but with every fiber in your body?

I had something like this yesterday while in the mall finishing up my Christmas shopping.

There was a small boy with his mother and grandmother in the same store I was. Both mom and grandma looked exhausted, and I can hardly blame them, the mall was swarming with people desperate to find the perfect gift that might put them on any person's good side.

At first I noticed that he seemed to be looking at me quite a lot, and he even waved a few times as though we had somehow met before. Then he gave me the most serious look a four year old boy could muster and said " I am looking for dinosaurs!"I gave him the biggest grin I could come up with and told him that was an awesome idea.He smiled at me, and then his mother pushed him away in his red car cart, and I continued looking for my gifts.I happened to be behind them again in the line and he looked at me, recognized me as the person he had talked to before.He looked up at me with those big, curious eyes and told me again of his quest for dinosaurs.I smiled at him again, and then my heart melted with his next words." Do you want one? I think they'd like you"

Of course, I was all for that!! So I told him he could find me one.He bunched up his little fingers into binoculars and began to look around for one of his friends.He turned to me, and said, all business:" I've found you one, she's up by the roof. She's a little shy, but I'll call her down, and tell her you're a friend"I watched as he cupped his hands around his mouth and began to whisper with all the urgency he could muster. Then he pointed at the ground by my feet and said very quietly" There, she came. She's by your feet, please don't forget to feed her"

By this time his mother had realized what was going on, and apologized again and again, telling me how frustrating it was that he just talked to everyone. I assured her that it was completely fine. She began yelling at her son about talking to strangers, and the dangers that could hold, then immediately left the store with his grandmother sending me glares the whole way out. I didn't notice this too much, because as they were leaving, their imaginative little boy looked right at me, grinned as though we shared a special secret, and waved.

Have you ever had something like that happen? Leave a commment and share your story!

2 comments:

There was a six-year-old boy in our neighbourhood who kept coming over to our place. He was from a Lebanese family that lived down the street. His parents fought all the time (you could hear them yelling in the house and sometimes on the street) and I'm sure he was just trying to escape his home environment.

So it wasn't surprising that this boy took a liking to Peter and would ask him all sorts of questions. One day, he told Peter that his parents were splitting up and he was going to have to go back to Lebanon. He wanted desperately to stay in Canada. We were ready to adopt him! It was impossible, of course, but he was so bright and curious we wanted to see what he could become apart from his dysfunctional family (that included many older brothers who were always in trouble with the law).

This boy would be a teenager by now. We often wonder where he is and how he is doing.